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A Sucker for Punishment

A Sucker for Punishment
From the Desk of George Barnard – January 8 and 10, 2019.

This writing follows on from January 5, ‘Professionals Only’ blurb. The lady introduced to you as “X”, has had a set-back as her lungs are filling with water and even though she is on oxigen, she has difficulty breathing. We could well lose her. What to do? Ah, I’m a sucker for punishment, it seems.

January 8.
I could see her in that hospital, but sit on the window sill for a time and carefully psych out my welcome or lack of it first since I might be on my way out of the window, again. I could wear a white coat and hang a stetoscope arond my neck, just like Dr. Mendoza. No sooner thought of than done — I now look like belong in this place. The Doc is actually there and I ask him if I’m allowed to heal the woman. He says: “You can do that.”

Well, I already know that I can do that, but will she allow me to do that? Dr. Mendoza is already gone, so I gingerly approach the patient and sponge the suffocating, choking liquid from her right lung twice, then twice again from her left lung. Both lungs are largely cleared, but there is a residue still left.

January 10.
Being informed that the patient has considerably improved, I check her out and find that the residue in her lungs is hard to soak into the sponge and wash out under the tap. It’s sticky, stringy, but her lungs are now clear. I won’t be back in this hospital, but before I leave I turn her over to check the surgeons’ handiwork. I’m shocked to the core with what I see and quite shocked again as I write this.